Women’s knowledge about cervical carcinoma risk factors and their health behaviours: Study among nurses

Purpose: To determine the level of knowledge regarding cervical carcinoma risk factors and to evaluate selected health behaviours presented by nurses in primary prevention of the reproductive organ malignancies.Materials and methods: The diagnostic survey with the use of self-constructed questionnaire was applied in the study. Data was collected among 184 nurses from two provinces in Poland.Results: According to the nurses, family history of cancer was the major risk factor in cervical carcinoma. The second most frequently enumerated risk factor, determining the incidence of cervical carcinoma, was oncogenic HPV types of infections. Nurses also mentioned frequent changes of sexual partners and early sexual initiation. More than 50% of respondents (54.3%) declared family history of various types of cancer including cervical carcinoma (3.8%). The majority of nurses were sexually active (82.6%) and had one partner (79.9%). Almost all nurses (93.5%) reported they had the cytological examination done regularly and 52.7% had it during last 12 months.Conclusions: The level of nurses’ knowledge regarding predisposing factors of cervical carcinoma development is good. Behaviours declared by the majority of them, belonged to the category of pro-health behaviours, which helps in the early detection and treatment of cancer.